"Patience is a salient requirement if you want to succeed in what you do or what you started to do."
Ted Mosby Tweet
Ted Mosby is a freelance architect and passionate camper. The RV lifestyle has allowed him to work anywhere — although being around nature is a strong preference of his. Originally from Ohio, he now lives in New Jersey where he enjoys a lot of campground options and opportunities all year round. He started CamperAdvise to share his knowledge with fellow camping enthusiasts and people who don’t know how to get started with this lifestyle. With the articles he writes, his mission is to help you get the information you need so you don’t waste your time with trial and error on the road. As someone who speaks from experience, he aims to help you with all things camping and RV living.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Ted Mosby: My name is Ted Mosby, and I’m a freelance architect and passionate camper. The RV lifestyle has allowed me to work anywhere — although being around nature is a strong preference of mine. Originally from Ohio, I now live in New Jersey where I enjoy a lot of campground options and opportunities all year round. I started CamperAdvise to share my knowledge with fellow camping enthusiasts and people who don’t know how to get started with this lifestyle. With the articles I write, my mission is to help you get the information you need so you don’t waste your time with trial and error on the road. As someone who speaks from experience, I aim to help you with all things camping and RV living.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Ted Mosby: Entrepreneurs are made. Your environment is a big factor and composes 90% of you who become in the future. With entrepreneurship, you do not just know about the important factors and there’s no such thing as being born with entrepreneurship skills. It is something you learn and improves over time, and experiences make up a big part of the person or professional that you will become.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Ted Mosby: I would say I am an entrepreneur who’s always searching for more as I see it as a window to become better in my field.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Ted Mosby: Camper Advise has always aimed to share insight about my personal experiences in this hobby turned profession. The mission is to give information to fellow campers about what to do and what to avoid so that they do need not undergo this trial and error I experienced. Throughout, I’ve gained more experiences and was able to exchange insights with people who have the same interests. This makes my platform a more concise and collaborative one which campers would appreciate more.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Ted Mosby: Assume that regardless of what you do, it will always be a competitive market. This is why you have to be ready for the consequences that come along with starting up a business. Unlike what people would usually assume, it’s not always butterflies and passive income generation. There are a lot of mistakes you will experience in the process but these are all essential in building yourself as an even more competitive entrepreneur.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Ted Mosby: Yes. I thought that business will be a lot easier than employee work, but it was the other way around. As an entrepreneur, you have to be very hands-on in what you do.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Ted Mosby: BE PATIENT.
Opportunities are everywhere but you have to carefully assess what opportunities will benefit you and what of those are pure baits. Patience is a salient requirement if you want to succeed in what you do or what you started to do.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Ted Mosby: FOCUS ON YOUR SALES.
When you always focus on your revenue and not the process on how you better it, you’ll be more focused on cutting costs, getting cheaper items not noticing you’ll end up sacrificing the quality of your product already. What you should focus on instead is meeting the needs of your customers.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Ted Mosby: COVID-19 is a huge disruption and this led to an overhaul shift in terms of marketing your products. Back then, businesses are always focusing on traditional marketing such as posters, but all of these completely changed due to the pandemic. People are now more present in the online world and it’s where marketing is focused on, now. This is why apart from the quality, you should also know how to sell your market in the crowd.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Ted Mosby: ENTREPRENEURS DO NOT QUIT.
Entrepreneurs should know when to let go to give room for bigger and better opportunities. People would always say that entrepreneurs should not quit, but you should learn when it is time to shift to different and bigger things. You of all people should learn why it is essential for someone to accept how crucial and essential change is.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Ted Mosby: You can’t be weak. When you are easily taunted with bad events, then you’ll end up in a depressive business state throughout. You should learn to accept the gray areas and work out how you can turn things around for your convenience and betterment.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Ted Mosby: Watch inspiring movies such as Steve Jobs and The Founder. This will teach you a lot about the strategies that work and what entrepreneurs should know and care about.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Ted Mosby: It would be being a missionary. I love to travel places and meet people, and doing this would be very fulfilling on my end.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Ted Mosby: It would be Elon Musk. He has a lot of vision, and people nowadays should be as visionary as he is. He believes in the impossible and we all should.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ted Mosby for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
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